Advanced Electrical Principles (AEP611S) – Laboratory 3

Student’s Surname: ______________________ Student’s Initials: ______________________

Bench No: ________ Student No: _____________ Date: ______________

SIMULATION OF THREE-PHASE CIRCUITS (STAR -DELTA) USING PSPICE

OBJECTIVE :

To build, simulate, and analyse three-phase circuits using OrCAD Capture Pspice Schematics under
balanced and unbalanced conditions, and to understand the characteristics of 3-phase electrical systems.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

All students must complete the pre – labs before commencing with the lab experiments. No student will be
allowed into the lab without a completed pre-lab. Each and every student must ensure that the pre – lab
is truly his/her own work. Plagiarism or coping others work is an academic offence.

NB: Lab duration is 2 Hours only.

EQUIPMENT:

1. Computer/Laptop
2. Pspice simulation software

MARKS OBTAINED:

Part 1 30

Part 2 40

TOTAL Marks 70

Attach a separate sheet showing all your calculations.

AEP611S Lab 3 – Three phase circuits(Star -Delta), 2019 Page 1 of 6 G Gope, R Jerry & R Tjiwemu
Background

Computer Simulations are used in industry to shorten the overall design process, since it is usually
easier to study the influence of a parameter on the system behavior in simulation, as compared to
accomplishing the same in the laboratory on a hardware breadboard.

Cadence Pspice is a software that allows you to perform circuit analysis by literally drawing the
schematic of the circuit, and therefore can provide an intuitive insight of the circuit. Numerous
circuit analysis tasks can be done using Cadence Pspice such as time domain analysis, dc sweep and
ac sweep. In this experiment, we will learn how to build the schematic of three-phase circuits and
then perform the time domain analysis on them using the Cadence Pspice.

AEP611S Lab 3 – Three phase circuits(Star -Delta), 2019 Page 2 of 6 G Gope, R Jerry & R Tjiwemu
PART 1: Pre-Lab

Figure 1: Three phase circuit with load impedances

1. In Figure 1, but let’s assume that the three-phase circuits are balanced and VR = 220 V∠0°,
VY=220V∠120° and VB=220V∠-120°. But the load is (25+ j20) Ω Find:

a) The line currents (IR, IY, IB) and (In) in peak values
b) The power factor for each phase of the load.

2. Repeat problem 1, but let’s now assume that the three-phase circuits are unbalanced and VR =
220 V∠0°, VY=220V∠120° and VB=220V∠-120°. But the load is now (30+ j20) Ω for ry, (50 +
j15) Ω for yb, and (10 + j50) for br.

AEP611S Lab 3 – Three phase circuits(Star -Delta), 2019 Page 3 of 6 G Gope, R Jerry & R Tjiwemu
Part 2: Lab Exercice

Procedure:

1. Open Capture CIS. Go to File on the menu and select “New” and then “Project.

2. The “New Project” window should appear.The default choice is “Schematics”. Please change this
and select “Analog or Mixed A/D” instead. Then, assign a name to your new project, and specify
where you want to save the associated files. Hit the “Browse” button if you want to store the files in
another directory or path.

3. A small window “Create Pspice Project” pops up. Select the “Create a blank project” option.

4. You should now see the main Schematic window on your screen and you are now ready to draw
the schematic of your circuit.

5. Build the three-phase circuits of Figure 1 onto the Schematic window

6. To get parts, go to the top menu, click on Place, and then select “Part”

7. If no library is shown on the Place Part window, then you will have to manually add the library
by clicking the “Add Library” button. Look for a library called “Source” and click on i. The
“SOURCE” library should now be listed on the “Place Part” window.

8. Use “Vsin” under the “SOURCE” library to build the three-phase voltages. Once the Vsin part is
on the schematic, double click on it to assign its parameter values:

AC=0 DC=0 FREQ=50 PHASE=0 VAMPL=220 VOFF=0

Note that the other two Vsin voltages should have the same parameter values as above except their
phases (for VY and VB) should be + 120° and -120°, respectively.

9. Passive components such as Resistor, Inductor, or Capacitor can be found under the “ANALOG”
library. For the given impedances in the Prelab part 1, determine the resistor and inductor values.
These are the values that you will need to assign for the Resistors and Inductors on the schematic.
These are values you have calculated in table 1.

10. Connect a “0/source” ground to the neutral points (node n and N in Figure 1). The ground can
be obtained by clicking place and then ground, select “0/SOURCE” in the “Place Ground” window
And type 0 in name box.

11. Connect all the components with wire by clicking “Place” on the top menu and then select
“Wire”. Do not assume that Pspice will always automatically place a connecting wire between two
components if you move them close to each other. It is advisable that you actually see the
connecting wire between the components.
AEP611S Lab 3 – Three phase circuits(Star -Delta), 2019 Page 4 of 6 G Gope, R Jerry & R Tjiwemu
12. After the schematic is done, go to “Pspice” on the top menu, and select “New Simulation
Profile”. A window appears asking you to name the simulation profile. Type in any name, but
preferably something that relates to your schematic, such as “three-phase”. Then, hit OK and the
Simulation Setting window will appear.

13. Select Time Domain (Transient) as Analysis type and enter the following values for the
simulation settings and then hit OK

Run to time=1050 ms, Start saving data after=1000 ms, Maximum step size=0.1ms

Check the box for the “Skip the initial transient bias point calculation (SKIPBP)”

14.Run Pspice Simulation by selecting “Run” under “Pspice” on the menu. Once the simulation is
completed, a Probe window will appear. However, if there is an error or more on your schematic
then the simulation will stop. You should then go back to the schematic page and trouble-shoot the
schematic.

15 To show various waveforms (voltage, current, power) from the schematic, go back to the
schematic window and then place the markers or probes to any place of your interest on the
schematic. The probes are located just below the top menu and there are four probes available:
voltage (V), voltage differential (V+V-), current (I) and power (W). Note that you should run your
simulation again every time you add or remove probes.

16. By use of voltage probes, run the simulation to show the relationship between the phase
voltages.

17. By taking one phase as the reference run the simulation to show the relationship between the
phase voltage and the line voltage (line-line voltage).

18. Run the simulation to show the relationship between the phase current and line current for each
type of load. Explain the phase relationships between the voltages and currents

19. Plot the waveform of Red phase load current Versus Voltage across it. Rescale the current
waveform by a factor of 10 to see the current waveform more clearly and copy the waveforms to
word.

AEP611S Lab 3 – Three phase circuits(Star -Delta), 2019 Page 5 of 6 G Gope, R Jerry & R Tjiwemu
20. Post –Lab question

1. How do your simulation results compare with your calculated ones from the Prelab?
2. From unbalanced three phase simulation, which line is carrying more current and what is value of
the current?
3. What are disadvantages of unbalanced systems?

21. Report
1. Your report should be typed.
2. Please write the following info on the front page of your report
▪ Course code & name
▪ Student Number & Name

3. Your report should include at least the following sections:

1. Objective(s) of experiment
2. Introduction
3. Experimental setup – circuit diagram
4. Findings/Results – simulated circuits and all graphs
5. Discussion/Analysis of results / Post lab questions.
6. Conclusion
7. References

NB: Make the cover page of this manual the cover page of your report

END

AEP611S Lab 3 – Three phase circuits(Star -Delta), 2019 Page 6 of 6 G Gope, R Jerry & R Tjiwemu